Bombay HC grants bail to doctor accused of raping minor

Mumbai: A doctor who was arrested on the charge of raping a girl when she was a minor in 2018 was granted bail by the Bombay High Court recently. The incident is reported to have taken place in 2018 when the girl was 14 years old, and the complaint was filed in 2021.

The single judge bench of Justice Bharati H Dangre observed that the complaint was filed in 2021, whereas the incident took place in 2018, and he was granted bail on the ground that the attendance record of the doctor revealed that he was working on the days when the incident took place. 

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The court passed the order while hearing a plea filed by a registered medical practitioner who used to work as a medical officer in a civil hospital when he was arrested for raping a minor in November 2021. 

The complaint filed by the survivor states that she came in contact with the doctor during her mother's treatment, as he was responsible for her mother's treatment, who was suffering from HIV at the civil hospital. After developing feelings, the girl accompanied the doctor to his house in 2018 where he is reported to have raped her. The complainant alleged that he had established a physical relationship with her on two previous occasions as well, as per a media report in the Indian Express. 

The complainant eventually confronted him with the help of a women's cell, following which the doctor said that he is willing to marry her once she became an adult. The Child Welfare Committee, to whom the issue was referred, recommended a complaint to be registered against the doctor in November 2021. Subsequently, the doctor was filed, and a charge sheet was filed against him. 

The counsel for the complainant, Advocate Sudeep Pasbola, submitted that the doctor's attendance records showed that he was present in the hospital on the days when the reported incident took place. The bench, after looking at the material on record, observed, "When the charge sheet is perused, there is no reason as to why the victim and her mother kept quiet despite gaining knowledge that her pregnancy, which was attributed to the applicant, was aborted and it is only after almost three years, the incident is reported with the help of the witnesses working in Women Cell." 

The court further held, "…Apart from this, there is no medical report of abortion or heavy bleeding placed in the charge sheet…" Granting bail, the bench asked the doctor to release a bail amount of Rs 50,000, while directing the doctor to stay away from the complainant and attend trials regularly. 

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